Grip of the Wilderness
by alliecat8697
Summary: Deeks is assigned a murder case by the LAPD, and talks Kensi into working it with him. They go undercover as a married couple...IN THE WOODS! They are forced to stay on the camp grounds where the killer claims his victims until he is caught. R&R, DENSI only, no other characters involvement.
1. Chapter 1

**AN: I was just chillin' watching Star Wars and this idea came to my head. I decided to write it out, and it turned out okay so I wanted to post! Hope y'all enjoy it! (:**

* * *

Finally here. It had taken long enough. Driving a truck with a camper attached was _not_ easy, nor fun, and it was even more stressing and nerve-racking with Deeks blabbing in her ear the whole way to the campsite.

"Is this the right camp site?" he asked, anticipation in his voice.

Kensi answered him by pulling into a parking lot across the narrow street, and then switching the truck into reverse and backing the camper up to the site and then climbing out of the truck. She unhooked the camper from the truck, and then got back in the truck and drove it up to the tiny, 3-space parking area that was situated right next to the public bathrooms.

She climbed back out with Deeks following behind her, getting ready to set up the camper.

They had been sent here-Joshua Tree National Park-to catch a murderer who had killed a total of 3 women so far, around these camp grounds. They'd all been women under the age of thirty, all attractive brunettes. That's why Kensi was the perfect target, and that was the only reason she was working this case with Deeks.

Kensi had been put on this case by the LAPD. She didn't have to do it; she worked for NCIS, and NCIS didn't deal with random murderers. They dealt with bigger issues. But Deeks had been asked to try to get her to do it, so she was doing it as a personal favor for him. The LAPD needed her to go undercover with Deeks because she was the perfect type for the killer; she was their best shot at catching this guy.

The women hadn't been taken at these exact camp grounds. The camp grounds at which the women had been killed had been closed off. Obviously nobody in their right mind would be willing to stay at that area. But this was the closest camping area to the one at which the crimes were committed, and a young brunette had reported to the park ranger seeing a man stalking her camp site and following her. The brunette woman had heard about the kills earlier in the week so she had immediately brought the man to the attention of officials of the camp grounds, but no women had been taken yet so the grounds were not being closed. The park rangers were on lookout, being extremely attentive to the grounds, but the LAPD knew that pesky park rangers would never stop this serial killer.

So there Kensi was, undercover with Deeks pretending to be his wife. She wasn't having a great deal of fun, but it wasn't too horrible. The camp grounds were very pretty, and although Deeks was…well, Deeks, she was still enjoying his company, but she'd never admit it.

"Tell me you're finished. I'm having a stroke, here," Deeks said dramatically.

Kensi, still bent over putting down the platforms and pulling up the last wheel of the camper/RV, jerked her head around and glared at him. "Deeks. It's a little over 75 degrees. You'll live," she spat, finally finishing making the camper sturdy.

Deeks, however hot and impatient, was still thoroughly enjoying watching Kensi bent down right in front of him, in short denim shorts and a tank top. He could have put a button in her back pocket and he would have been able to see the indentations in it-that's how tight the shorts were. It was almost like she was just trying to tease him.

She stood up finally and walked over to the camper door, pulling it open and stepping inside now that everything was set up. Deeks followed her inside and also began inspecting the camper. It was the first time they'd seen it; the LAPD had simply given them the storage key and a truck to borrow and sent them off.

It was fairly nice for a camper. There was a small table to sit at, all of about a foot away from the tiny sink, fridge, freezer, and microwave. A TV that played only DVD's was perched on the right corner of the room, attached to the built-in DVD player that also functioned as a radio.

The room was extremely cramped, with very little space between the table and the cooking appliances, but it was nevertheless a nice little place. It would almost be suitable for permanent living if it was only for one person. Beside the kitchen was a little curtain, separating the other room of the camper. The bedroom. Kensi crossed her fingers, praying there was somehow two beds in that tiny space beyond the curtain. She yanked the curtain back, and was relieved when she saw bunk beds. But her relief was quickly wiped away when she realized that the top bunk was _tiny._ It was probably about a third the size of a twin bed. It was like a toddler bed. The space from the tiny mattress to the ceiling was literally less than a foot. It was ridiculous. The bottom bed was a fairly good size, with a miniature window on the side wall covered by tiny curtains.

"The top bunk literally makes no sense. The only type of person that would fit up there would be some kind of child under the age of 7. But typically, young children don't sleep on top bunks because it would hurt them badly if they fell off because they're more frail. So basically, adults don't fit on the bed but children don't sleep on top bunks. It's seriously pointless," Kensi said passionately, reaching above her head and clicking a switch to turn on the air conditioner for the camper.

Deeks chuckled a little, knowing she was on a rant because she knew there might be a slight chance she would actually have to share a bed with him again.

She turned away from the bed, figuring she would find some sort of way to worm herself onto the bed one way or another. She just wondered how long it would be before the killer struck, how long she would have to sleep in that tiny space. She would make Deeks switch out with her, but if she couldn't fit, there was no way Deeks could. Plus, she knew he would never willingly sleep up there. He would most likely scoff and tell her tough luck, and she had to just sleep with him. And that was _not_ about to happen.

So Kensi turned away from the beds, and then eyed a small wooden sliding door with a little hole as the handle/knob, with a plastic strap that snapped from the door to the wall, holding it closed. She pulled the snap and the strap fell loosely to the side of the wall. She pulled open the door with the hole, and saw the incredibly small bathroom. The other side of the door was the same as the one she'd entered through.

The bathroom truly was so small. The sink was on top of a cabinet and below a mirror. Deeks pushed into the bathroom too, squishing Kensi against the sink as he went to inspect the toilet and shower. He flipped the toilet lid up and stared at it in confusion.

"That's a…"

"A hole," Kensi said. "You pull the lever," she said, grabbing the flusher, "And the toilet bottom slides away, dropping everything into the waste tubes," she explained.

Deeks stared at her, a look of disgust on his face. "How do you know about this stuff?"

"I've been camping," she said incredulously. He asked the dumbest questions. How else would she know about it?

"I know that," he said, relieving her concerns that he didn't have an intelligence quotient above 70. "But I meant when do you ever go camping," he added.

"I don't anymore. I had a boyfriend about five years ago that was into the whole outdoors thing, so I went with him a little," she explained.

Deeks cracked a grin. "Making love in a bed you can hardly fit in. How romantic," he commented.

Kensi rolled her eyes, but then a spark of mischief twinkled and she looked at him. "I don't look for romance, Deeks. I look for someone to take care of what I need. And who said it was in the bed?" she said, throwing him a devious grin and then leaving the camper.

His jaw dropped in shock as he stared after her for a moment, finally jogging after her.

She was grabbing their luggage, pillows, blankets, food, and other necessities out of the back of the truck. He helped her, grabbing a couple cases of water and walking back with her.

When they finally got the truck emptied and the camper full, Kensi locked the truck and then started putting her things in place. The air conditioner was finally kicking in and the camper was getting cooler.

Kensi started putting away their food, and Deeks was making up the bed. He made one bed, and then threw a blanket and pillow up on the top bunk carelessly for Kensi. He doubted she'd actually end up sleeping there, no matter how much she really didn't want to sleep with him.

About a half hour later, everything was put away and they were settled.

"I'm hungry," she commented. It was 9:00 at night; they'd arrived at the grounds around 7:30. They hadn't eaten since breakfast.

"Me too," Deeks agreed, his stomach practically growling at just the mention of food. "You're pretty horrible at cooking, but I think it's difficult to mess up a hot dog over the fire. You'd find a way, but I'll let you try," he said, giving her a half smile.

She rolled her eyes and grabbed the hot dogs out of the fridge. She also got buns out of the cabinet, and other things they'd need for dinner outside. Then she went outside, with Deeks following her.

Deeks lit the fire, and they waited for a minute, setting up two foldable chairs, until the fire went down a little. Then Kensi set out foil on the rack over the fire, and placed four hot dogs across it.

She returned to her seat next to Deeks, watching the fire. There was a breeze, and she was getting a bit chilly. This was, after all, still California. Sunny all day, chilly at night.

She darted back into the camper and grabbed her thin jacket and slipped into it. Then she went through Deeks' bag and pulled out his, exiting the camper and taking it to him.

"Thanks," he said, putting it on.

She nodded, taking her seat again. "So, _sweetie,_" she started. Then she lowered her voice to a level that was not a whisper but was indecipherable to anybody not within five feet of her. "Is there anything we can do until he comes for me? I mean, is there anything to work with?"

Deeks shook his head. "Nope. We just have to wait it out," he answered.

Kensi nodded, looking out into the road. She looked at it for a minute, and then spotted someone in a hooded sweatshirt walking out of the woods on the other side of the road.

"Deeks, look!" she said, pushing her head in the man's direction rather than pointing, which would be too obvious.

Deeks took note of what she was looking at and also began to watch him.

"It could be him. Quick, do something a loving husband would do," she said, looking at him.

He looked at her, clueless. The man was walking closer to the road.

Kensi grabbed his hand and started laughing at absolutely nothing. "So funny, Ryan," she said, holding his hand with both of hers.

He nodded, laughing also, while glancing at the man in his peripheral vision.

"Unless he has a kid and a wife, I'm pretty sure that's not him," Deeks finally said, still grinning at her and speaking through the smile.

She glanced over at the man, and sure enough, a woman and young boy had walked out of the woods behind him.

"Okay. We still have to seem married, though," Kensi said quietly, in a secretive tone.

Deeks nodded in agreement and stood up, checking on the hot dogs. Knowing they were done, he went back to the table behind Kensi's chair and grabbed paper plates and buns. He prepared two hot dogs for him and two for Kensi, carrying them over to her and sitting back down. They didn't have condiments, so they just ate them plain and dry. They didn't care.

They ate in complete silence; they were so busy eating that they didn't pay attention to each other. They were both very hungry. They finished quickly, and disposed of everything in the dumpster across the street by the mini-parking lot. They then went inside, taking the supplies back in with them and putting them up.

"I'm going to get in the shower," Deeks said, heading towards the back room to get a towel and clothes.

"Me too. I'll go across the street to the publics," she said, not wanting to wait until Deeks got out.

Deeks stood up and looked at her. "No, I'll go to the publics. You can use this one. I don't want you outside the camper alone," he said.

"I'm fine, Deeks. It's not like you aren't right across the street," she protested.

He shook his head. "No. Lock the door behind me," he told her, finally pulling the right pair of pajamas out of his bag and heading towards the little door of the camper, with a towel swung over his arm and holding a sample-sized bottle of shampoo as well as a different bottle of soap in his hand. He also had his toothbrush and a small tube of toothpaste.

Kensi chuckled at him. "If I lock the door behind you, then how the hell are you supposed to get in if I'm still in the shower?"

He gave her a cocky grin as he walked down the steps to the camper and stood outside. "I guess you'll just have to get out of the shower…all hot and wet…literally, of course," he said, winking.

She shook her head, grinning but turning away from him, closing the door and locking it.

* * *

When Kensi heard the rapping on the camper door, she was still in the shower. She _knew_ this would happen. She was almost sure that Deeks had hurried on purpose. She cut her shower short, since she'd already washed her hair, body, and shaved, and climbed out into the tiny bathroom. She pulled back the curtain to the window, holding her arm over her boobs as she checked to make sure it was Deeks. Sure enough, it was, and she was pretty sure she'd shown a bit too much cleavage through the window because he was staring at her in awe. She grabbed a towel from below the sink and kept the curtains open. She wasn't going to show Deeks much…but she was going to tease him. She knew how wrong it was to do this, but it was funny to watch him squirm, and he deserved it since he'd drug her to this stupid camping serial killer catching thing anyway. There weren't a lot of things she was very confident about, but her body was one of them; she knew she had a body. It wasn't because she was arrogant. It was simply because when you work out all the time, you're almost bound to have a good body. She'd never met an NCIS agent that wasn't fit. Of course, there were the ones that were short so they had all this muscle packed into a small person, and their bodies weren't necessarily admirable…But needless to say, it wasn't like she could work out all the time and not realize that she had a good body. And she intended to use that body.

She backed all the way up to the window, her ass just barely covered. She knew that Deeks could see her back, and possibly the side of her stomach. But she was soaking wet, and she knew that was all she needed. She grabbed the towel and wrapped it around her slowly, starting in the front and then pulling it around her to the back. She finally left the bathroom in just her towel, and opened the door to the camper. She was greeted by Deeks with an expression on his face she would never forget.

"Sorry. You didn't give me time to get dressed," she said. "Just look away for a minute, I'm only in a towel."

"You're lucky you've got that around you now. You know you forgot to close the bathroom curtains when you started changing, right?" he asked, grinning like he knew something she didn't.

She loved playing the shocked card. "You're lying. I closed them!" she said.

"No you didn't. Go check," he said.

She turned around and walked back to the bathroom, still in just a towel, and pretended to be startled when she saw that the curtains were, in fact, pulled back.

"You still couldn't have seen that much. I never turned towards the window."

He grinned. "I didn't see that much," he admitted.

Kensi looked at him triumphantly before digging around and finding some clothes. She went into the bathroom, closed the curtains, and got dressed. Then she washed off her make up and brushed her teeth, feeling clean and fresh when she exited.

Right after she walked out and was putting away her dirty clothes, she heard loud music booming through the camper. _Great_.

She walked out of the back room and into the kitchen area, where Deeks was sitting at the table snapping and moving his head to the beat.

"Deeks! It's too loud!" she yelled, because if her voice had been a single octave lower he wouldn't have been able to hear her over the music. She stood on the kitchen seat, looking at the little stereo on the wall. She messed around with it for a minute and finally found the power button.

"Hey! Come on, that's my jam," Deeks defended the music.

Kensi shook her head. "Are you trying to get us kicked out of the park?"

Deeks shut his mouth, pursing his lips together.

"You look like a rat by the way, with your hair all wet. Not a look for you," she commented. She was totally lying, but he did look kind of funny with wet hair.

"I do not look like a rat. Rats don't have these big blue eyes, and these muscles. That's what you married me for, right hun-bun?"

Kensi looked at him in feigned disgust. "I'm going to go to bed now. We have to get up early-"

"Why do we have to get up early?" Deeks questioned incredulously.

She opened her mouth but no words came out. She finally spoke, "I…guess we don't," she said.

"Yeah. And it's only 10:00. Let's do something," he said.

She sat down on the chair across from him and stared at him. "Like what?"

"Swim?" he suggested.

She stared at him like he was crazy. "Deeks. Why the hell would you want to swim in a snake-ridden, bug-filled, mossy lake when you swim all the time in the oceans of Los Angeles?"

He looked at her for a minute, and then showed signs of defeat. "It sounded better in my head," he said.

She chuckled. That had become his excuse for everything lately. She yawned.

Deeks stood up, giving in. "All right, bed it is. But I call bottom bunk," he said, winking.

She shook her head, and ran past him, getting on the bottom bunk and laying in the middle. She very much doubted it would work, but she hoped that maybe Deeks cared enough about professional boundaries to just let her have the bed.

Of course that wasn't the case. He pulled her arm up, and got in bed with her. Since she was in the middle, he was all too close to her, giving her chills and sensitivity. She was suddenly hyper-aware of everything, and a large part of her was craving to stay close to him, to stay all cuddled up with him, but she knew she couldn't do that.

Kensi pulled herself back from him. "I can't believe you just did that! You could have at least given me a warning before you like, laid on top of me!" she exclaimed.

He grinned, laying on his back and looking at her.

Because the bunk bed ceiling was so high, she was very limited on ways to get out of the bed. So, knowing it was wrong but not bothering to care, she straddled him, putting one leg on the ground and sliding over his stomach. She resisted the urge to keep herself on top of him and bend down and kiss him. She instead swung her other leg around him and got off the bed.

Deeks stared after her, his mouth hanging slightly open. "I can't believe you just did that."

She grinned and then looked at the top bunk. "Scoot over."

"Good decision," he said.

She gave him an "oh-please" look. "I'm not sleeping with you, Deeks. I'm stepping on your bed so I can get on the top bunk."

He scooted over a little, staring at her long legs. She was now wearing a thin, silk pair of sleeping shorts with a matching camisole.

"I never asked for you to sleep _with_ me," he said. "I said to sleep _beside_ me. Although if you want to sleep with me, that'd be great," he said, that familiar amusement in his voice.

Kensi shook her head. He flirted with her too much. How was she supposed to not fall for him? She knew that she was, in fact, falling for him, not because it was natural but because it was almost hard not to. Well, and also a little because it was natural and partially real.

She stood on the edge of his bed and swung one leg onto the tiny mattress, and then held on to the bottom of the bed as she got her other foot up. That had been difficult, and she knew that Deeks had been watching her the whole time. It was somewhat embarrassing, but she also knew that due to the sexual appeal of her long legs in the short white shorts, Deeks definitely hadn't thought any less of her because of the way she mounted the tiniest bed in the world.

When she was on the bed finally, she was on her stomach. She wanted to turn onto her back, but the space between the ceiling and her body didn't allow her enough room to turn around, so she just stayed on her stomach. She gripped her pillow and pulled her super soft blanket up to her shoulders.

"Deeks, turn out the lights," she said.

He was quiet a minute. "How about you do it," he said.

"Deeks. Turn out the damned lights."

"No, really, I would love to see you get on the bed again."

Kensi swung her head over the top bunk to look at him. "This is _not_ going to be funny when I hold you at gunpoint tomorrow and demand that _you_ sleep up here," she said, totally joking but hoping he would just get up and turn out the lights.

"Whoa, calm down, Badass Blye," he said, getting up and hitting the little switch on the ceiling.

"Thank you," she said.

It took them several minutes to adjust to the dark, but they eventually did. Kensi fell asleep fairly quickly, and Deeks knew she was asleep because he heard her light snores from above him. Her snores really weren't that loud; they were barely even snores. It was really like she just breathed very heavily, but there was that occasional noise of snoring from her.

He stared at the bunk above him and saw as Kensi's leg dropped off of the bed, swung over the side and dangling next to him. He chuckled and considered tickling her and waking her up, but decided against it. Instead, he looked out the little window next to his bed for a few minutes, staring at the moon, until he felt tired. He then shut the curtains and fell asleep.

Deeks awoke in the middle of the night to a loud thud. As a cop, he automatically assumed the worst and sat straight up in bed, ready to grab his gun from underneath the mattress. But then he saw Kensi, shuffled up and confused, laying on the floor of the camper beside his bed, gripping the top bunk's mattress in her hands. Deeks laughed as he realized that she'd fallen out of bed, but he was only half-awake so it came out more like a scoff. Kensi's hair was wild and her face could only be described as annoyed. She was still only half-awake like Deeks, but falling out of bed had been painful and she definitely was not still asleep. She stood up slowly, keeping her back hunched, and climbed into bed with Deeks. Her eyes closed the second she touched the bed, and they stayed closed as she got in and pulled the blanket up to her chin. She tried to steer clear of Deeks, but when she put herself on the opposite side of the bed than him, her head hit the annoyingly uncomfortable mattress. Still not fully functioning or aware of what she was doing, she moved back close to Deeks so she could share his pillow.

Deeks, who was now basically all the way awake, stared at Kensi as she fell back completely asleep, her face all of two inches from his…her _lips_ all of two inches from his. God, could she be any more beautiful? It was insane, Deeks felt like he was dreaming. He wanted badly to wrap his arms around her and kiss her, but he instead just stared at her until he fell asleep again.

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**AN: I have this bad gut feeling that I screwed up on something really stupid and obvious lol. I REALLY hope that's not the case. Pretty please review? Thanks guys! (: **


	2. Chapter 2

**TOTALLY FORGOT MY DISCLAIMER; I DO NOT OWN ANYTHING BUT THE PLOT AND OC'S! **

**AN: Sorry it's taken me so long. It's not that it typically takes me long to write chapters, it's just that school has taken up the majority of my life for the past week, so I haven't had hardly any time to write lately. Anyway, hope y'all enjoy this! (:**

* * *

Deeks' senses slowly came back to him, and the first thing he felt was something on top of him. He opened his eyes and saw that it was Kensi. Her head was on his chest, right under his chin, her soft, wavy hair bunched up against his neck. One of her arms was sprawled out on the other side of her body, but the other was draped over his stomach. She was laid out on her stomach, her left leg entangled in his legs and her right leg out of his reach.

Deeks tried not to laugh but he failed. It was too funny. Kensi Blye, spread out all over him. It was something he enjoyed, something he wished he could wake up to every morning. But it was nevertheless hilarious, because Kensi would never have done that consciously.

When Deeks laughed, Kensi started to wake up. She moved her head a little, and then opened her eyes. She moved her head around, staring at her hands and then becoming aware that her leg was entwined with Deeks', and she was practically on top of him.

Instead of sitting straight up and looking horrified like Deeks thought she would, Kensi just pushed her head up, resting her chin on his chest. She yawned and then stared at him, a hint of confusion still on her face.

"You fell out of bed," Deeks reminded her, pointing to the mattress on the floor beside the bed.

Kensi's head jerked over to the side and her gaze landed on the mattress, and she remembered everything. She laughed with embarrassment, putting her hands down on Deeks and burying her face in his chest, laughing.

"Oh my gosh," she said, running a hand through her wild hair, her facial expression of laughter still not going away. "Did I squish you to death?" she asked.

He shook his head, also grinning. "When I fell asleep, we weren't touching. It must have happened some time during the night," he said, taking note of how Kensi still hadn't moved. He tried not to let himself think that she saw nothing wrong with it, but that was very much what it seemed like. He was glad she wasn't freaking out, it was kind of nice. It was nice waking up to someone, especially _her_. She was so beautiful, it was almost surreal. There was something so pure about her, the way she had gone to bed without make up and with wet hair, yet she was still flawless and beautiful when she woke up. She was completely bare, and her smile was the kind of smile filled with life that made you want to smile with her. Her mismatched eyes stared into his, as full of life as her smile. Deeks tried to ignore the fact that he was overjoyed to wake up to her smile; he didn't want to face what was happening here. He didn't want to face the way he was feeling. He wouldn't venture as far as to say that he was deeply in love with her or anything…but there was definitely something there with them, something more than a partnership.

Kensi didn't know why she wasn't moving. She just wasn't. She didn't want to. Deeks didn't seem to have a problem with it, so she didn't either. They both knew that it was wrong, but neither of them did anything. She told herself it was just a very close friendship thing, that he was one of those people who she could just be completely comfortable with at all times, even in bed…but that didn't mean anything was going on. Yes, she had feelings for him…But they were nothing big. This was no big deal. Right?

"What time is it?" Kensi asked, pushing her thoughts out of her head.

Deeks reached to the side of the bed and grabbed his phone out of the cup holder attached to the bed, pulling its charger out and bringing it to his face.

"It's 10:43," he said. Then he set his phone back down and looked at Kensi.

She nodded, and finally sat up, her leg still intertwined in both of his. She stretched her arms in front of her and yawned again.

"You took the covers! I'm freezing," Deeks said, staring at her as she stretched.

She reached up to the top bunk, grabbed the edge of her blanket, and yanked it down. She grabbed the whole thing, balled it up, and smashed it into Deeks' face. He pulled it off of his face and spread it out over him, eyeing her.

"So. What kind of stuff do you when you go camping?" he asked.

"Hiking, fishing. Stargazing at night. A little too clichéd for me, but it's all right. Then again, we're camping in a desert-"

"We're in a desert?" he interrupted her.

She chuckled. "Not necessarily. It would be a lot hotter if we were _in_ the desert. We at least have shade here. We're just outside a desert," she explained.

"Oh."

"We need to do something today though. You choose. We have to get out, or else Mr. Murder is never going to see me," Kensi said.

Deeks chuckled slightly, very aware that their legs were still squished together. "Mr. Murder? How original," he said. Then he thought for a seemingly long moment. "What if we just…go for a walk and see where we end up?" he suggested.

She nodded; she was never one for planning. "Sounds good," she said, untangling her legs from him and getting out of the bed.

Deeks felt bare from the sudden disappearance of Kensi's warmth. He continued laying down for a minute, while Kensi dug through her bag to find clothes for the day. He checked his phone, listening to his messages while desperately trying not to stare at her ass while she was bent over but failing miserably. When the phone let out a loud beep, he realized that he hadn't actually been listening to his messages because he was so focused on Kensi. He mentally groaned and rolled over onto his other side, and listened to his messages again. There was nothing important to be heard, so he put the phone back in the cup holder and rolled out of bed.

Kensi had been in the bathroom for a minute, so Deeks dug around in his bag until he found a men's tank top type thing with the sides cut low, and some comfy basketball shorts. Not caring if Kensi stepped out, he took off his pants and shirt, tossing them onto the bed and grabbing the clean clothes.

"Damn. I'd always assumed you wore tidy-whities," Kensi's voice came from behind him.

"Gross," he said, chuckling and pulling his shorts on. Then he turned around to face her, yanking his shirt over his head. His eyes landed on her attire immediately; short, thin red shorts that were made out of basketball shorts material, only they definitely weren't basketball shorts because they were _way_ too short to be, and a black, thin tank top that hung loosely on her.

"Why do you keep wearing provocative clothing? You look like you're auditioning for Warrant's 'Cherry Pie' music video," he insulted. "It almost seems like you're doing it on purpose, just to see me admit that you're hot."

She chuckled softly and sat on the bed next to him, pulling her bag to her feet and looking through it for some socks.

"That wasn't my intention, that's the reason this shirt is so _loose. _But did you just confess that you think I'm hot?" she asked.

He shook his head. "No. That's not what I said."

"It sounded like that."

"You misinterpreted it," he argued.

She shook her head, grinning, and left the back room. Once inside the other room, she pulled open the fridge and grabbed a couple of waters from the shelf. Then she pulled out a little lunch box type thing and stuffed the waters into it. She opened the pantry next, grabbing some trail mix and putting it in the box as well. Then she made two simple ham and cheese sandwiches, and put them in carefully so she wouldn't crush the bread. Lastly, she grabbed a sample-sized bottle of Germ-X and threw it inside, and zipped the bag up.

Deeks pushed the curtain back, now also ready with his tennis shoes on.

"You ready?" he asked.

She turned her head to look at him. "I…haven't even ran a brush through my hair, or put on make up," she said.

He rolled his eyes. "So?"

"Deeks. I look like I belong on an island," she said, yanking at her hair.

He scoffed. "We're _camping_. We might as well be on an island. I like you better without make up anyway. Let's go," he said, walking forward, forcing her to move forwards too.

Kensi was quiet for a minute, complying. When they were outside the camper, she looked back at him. "You think I look better this way?" she asked dubiously.

He chuckled and squinted like it was the most obvious answer in the world. "Yeah."

She looked surprised but turned away from him, locking the camper and stuffing the keys in her lunch box/bag. Deeks put his phone in it too, because he didn't have any pockets.

Kensi put the bag over her left shoulder so it was hanging diagonally across her torso to her right hip, and then turned away from the camper. She walked past it to a small opening in the woods, with Deeks following her, not caring who lead the way or where they ended up.

The woods were boring and like those of all other parks at first, but when Kensi and Deeks looked at the trees carefully, they realized that the trees themselves were different than those of all other parks. The trees were short, and got smaller and smaller in quantity the further they walked. Before too long, they stopped abruptly because of a large rock that was in front of them, blocking their view to anything beyond it. Kensi stared at it for a short moment, and then walked directly towards it.

Deeks squinted in confusion. "What…what are you doing?" he asked confusedly.

"Climbing it…?" she said, as if it was ridiculously obvious what she was doing.

He shook his head. "That's dangerous," he said.

Kensi scoffed and turned around and looked at him. "Deeks. We get in fights with armed professionals every day, and you're going to give me shit because you're scared of climbing a rock? Man up," she said, turning back around and putting her foot on the bottom of the rock and pushing herself onto it, reaching up as far as her arms could go.

Deeks shrugged and walked up to the rock, also attaching himself to it. He was ahead of Kensi within a short time, but they stayed within a small increment-measurable distance. Although he was ahead of Kensi for the most part of their somewhat difficult climb, Kensi beat him out in the end, stepping on top of the rock and lightly gasping when she looked out ahead of her.

Deeks appeared on the rock beside her within just a few seconds, also surprised at what he saw.

In front of them was a large clearing; they were no longer in any form of a forest. Rather, they were in a desert. It wasn't just a desert though. It was a beautiful desert…It was a desert filled with hundreds of rock formations. There were huge tall rocks that looked like needles, and big fat ones piled up on top of each other. There were Joshua trees scattered out, not many, but enough that the name of the park made sense.

"Whoa," Deeks muttered, staring out at the scene in front of them. It was very beautiful and bizarre.

Once Kensi's attention was away from the clearing, she turned to Deeks, not about to let him get away with losing their climbing match.

"You got beat by a girl," she said, grinning.

He looked at her, an agitated expression on his face. "No way. I don't consider you a girl."

"Oh?" she started, feigning an insulted look. "So you're telling me…that you would kiss a man, sleep with a man, tell a man he was hot, and you could…have a 'thing' with a man?" she interrogated, staring at him.

His eyebrows furrowed. "You're a very confused person. First of all, you're the one that said it was just a cover kiss-"

"It was."

"Exactly my point!" he said.

"But if a man had kissed you to maintain a cover, you'd be pissed. You'd slap him. Unless you like men…I've gotta say, I never had you pegged as that kind of guy," she said, knowing she would win this battle.

He shook his head. "I'm not! And you never let me finish. So whatever, I wouldn't let a guy kiss me without being pissed. But everything you just said was wrong! You say I slept with you like we had sex or something, I just struggled to keep you off of me because you act like you've never slept with a man and you have to sprawl yourself out on the whole bed! And I didn't actually _say_ you were hot-"

"So I'm not pretty?" she asked, giving him a guilt trip.

His mouth shut and he stared at her.

She widened her eyes innocently, crushing his insides with the one look.

"I didn't say that! Of course you're pretty…I didn't say I didn't think you're hot, I just said that I never said that," he defended himself, softening up in guilt.

Kensi couldn't handle it anymore. She busted out laughing, cackling for a few seconds before quieting down and looking at Deeks. He was smiling in that slight, yeah-you-got-me, somewhat annoyed way.

"But as for the 'thing' part…you just might be right about that," he said in the most serious tone he had used all day.

Kensi looked at him with just as serious of an expression on her face. She wasn't sure what to say, so she turned and looked out at the landscape beyond the rock for a moment, and then turned back to him.

"Wanna go out there?" she asked.

Deeks, pushing his awkward thoughts of Kensi out of his mind, knew that the original plan was to get somewhere that lots of people were at so Kensi would have a better chance of being seen by the killer, but the sight in front of him was very tempting. He also knew that the killer's victims had most likely ventured out to areas without many people a lot, yet they were still found and murdered.

"Yeah, let's go," he said, walking forwards to the edge of the rock. The boulder was pretty large so they were high up, and getting down could be difficult. He turned around so his back was facing the edge, and Kensi went towards him to help him. She laid down across the rock as he swung his body over it, holding onto the edge. She leaned forward and grabbed his hands, lowering him to the ground gently and carefully. He'd had to just let go at about two feet from the ground, but it had worked out fine. Now it was Kensi's turn.

She turned around, threw the lunch box onto the ground by Deeks, and began getting down the same way Deeks had. Holding onto a slight dent in the rock, she attempted to move down as she felt Deeks grab her, putting one hand on her thigh and the other on her waist. She started to move her feet and climb down, but the edge of the rock she was putting most of her weight on crumbled and she knew she was going to fall.

_Shit._ "Deeks! Catch me," she warned, right as she flew backwards. Deeks' left arm that had been on her waist moved and wrapped around her torso as his right arm stayed where it was: on her thigh. He stumbled backwards a bit but didn't fall, laughing at her. When he set her down on the ground, it took him a moment to realize that he needed to remove his arms from her body. He pulled back slowly, staring at her with a tiny, mesmerized smile on his face. She stared at him for a minute in seriousness, and then looked down, grinning, when he backed away from her. She looked back up, ready to end whatever awkward kind of moment this was.

"Good catch. Were you a cheerleader in high school?" she joked, patting him on the shoulder.

"Definitely. Loved looking up the girls' skirts," he said. "I mean, I gotta say, just you in the basketball shorts was pretty amazing, I can't even imagine a cheer skirt," he said, holding his hand over his chest dramatically.

She shook her head. "Whatever, Deeks," she said, grinning and walking past him, grabbing the lunch box off the ground as she charged forward, out into the desert.

"Want to go there?" Deeks asked, pointing at a small hill made of hundreds of rocks.

She looked at where he was pointing and then changed her direction. "Sure."

The walk was long and basically silent, except for the occasional pointing at trees and other pointless stuff. When the silence got awkwardly long, Deeks considered trying to talk to Kensi about their 'thing.' He opened his mouth to speak, but when he looked over at her, he lost his confidence and his mouth snapped shut. Looking at her made him feel insignificant, it made him feel like a mediocre person when he normally felt at least average. He wasn't ridiculously egotistical, but he knew he could make a woman laugh and he tended to have lots of women interested in him. But Kensi seemed so much better than that…so _above_ the flirting and the humor, and even above looks. She was more than a beautiful and funny woman. She was a brilliant woman, she was a complex woman, she was a strong and unique woman. And all of this combined was what took away his confidence.

After a good ten minutes of walking, they finally reached the hill of rocks. Kensi took the lead, climbing the rocks with strength in a way that made it look like she was trying to push them downhill. Deeks followed her, trying not to stare at her never-ending tan legs and her ass in tiny red shorts. He wasn't very successful, but he didn't care because she was aware that he was staring, and she was used to stuff like that from him.

"Come on, Deeks. Eyes on the rocks," she said, her voice muffled by the wind.

He chuckled a little, continuing to climb up the rocks but still staring at her. It was several minutes before they reached the top of the rocks. Kensi was first, pulling her legs in front of her and sitting down on the top, looking out at what was on the other side. When Deeks finally reached the top, he sat down beside her and saw that she was staring out at a beautiful little area. It was a fairly large pond, surrounded by large rocks on all sides, making it a type of isolated little area. It had all sorts of miniature trees growing on the sides, and rocks cutting into the pond even some places in the middle of the water.

"This is…" Deeks started, but didn't finish. It wasn't because he was too in awe to say anything, but rather because of his lack of a good word to describe the scene in front of them.

Kensi stood up again, and walked slowly downhill, edging her way to flat rocks by the pond. With Deeks following, she continued to walk around the pond after she got downhill, until she got to a large, flat rock on the left side of the water.

"Hungry yet?" she asked.

He nodded. "Yeah. No breakfast," he reminded her.

She plopped down onto the rock and pulled the lunch box off of her torso, setting it down beside her. She unzipped it and grabbed a sandwich out of it, and then left it open for Deeks to get his.

Eagerly eating, they didn't exchange many words. They mostly just stared at the landscape in front of them, because they knew it would be a long time before they'd see a place like this. Neither of them ever got away from Los Angeles. Although it was an amazing place to live and work, it still got old. Anywhere in the world that a person could live would get old at some point, simply because that followed the definition of old.

"Is there _anything_ to do around here that involves a lot of other people? The killer isn't going to see me if we just wander around the desert, where nobody else is," Kensi spoke finally.

Deeks turned to her, swallowing and then pushing some wind-blown hair out of his face. "I don't think there's a lot of things with other people. There's so much area that not a lot of people gather in one place," he said, acting serious for one of the first times all day. "The only thing I can think of is to hang out more at the camp site. That's got to be where he's finding his victims."

Kensi nodded. "Then what are we doing out here, Deeks?" she asked him, a bit of sweat making her forehead shine.

He looked at her for a minute. "We're already here. We might as well enjoy it. Waiting all day at the camp site would seem suspicious, you know," he said.

She took that thought into consideration, and then nodded, gulping down some water.

She pulled Deeks' phone out only for the purpose of checking the time, and she saw that it was a little past 1:00. She was surprised that it was that late. They'd left at about 11:15, and she knew that they'd been out a while, but she hadn't thought it had been nearly two hours.

"It's 1:00. Do you want to keep going?" she asked.

Deeks looked at her for a minute, and then nodded. "Yeah, sure-" he stopped mid-sentence and Kensi stared at him in confusion.

He put a hand on his head. "I just felt rain," he said.

Kensi looked confused for all of two seconds, until she felt a drop of rain splat onto her arm. Then she felt a few more, dropping onto her head. She looked up, and immediately felt drops fall onto her face.

"Great. We better get going, before it starts raining hard," she said, tossing her empty zip-lock and water bottle into the lunch box with Deeks' food as well and zipping it up.

Within just a few seconds, the rain was coming down quickly and in large quantities, getting heavier and heavier with each millisecond that passed.

"I think it's too late for that," Deeks said, taking the lead towards the other side of the pond.

They ran around the pond, rain coming down very hard now, and started back up the small mountain of rocks.

"They're slippery!" Kensi yelled. She was having to yell in order to be heard over the loud pounding of the rain.

"Yeah, I know," Deeks said, struggling up the rocks.

It took them much longer to climb back over the rocks in the rain than it had when they had climbed into the area. They both slipped several times, not ever falling but still causing a lot of difficulty.

By the time they were back over the rocks, they were both soaking wet. Nearly every inch of them was drenched.

Kensi took off the second she got back to the ground, not sprinting but running at a pace faster than a jog.

"Why are we running?" Deeks called from behind her. "We're already soaked!" he yelled, stating the obvious.

"Yeah! But are you enjoying being in the rain?"

He didn't answer.

"That's what I thought!" she exclaimed.

Deeks caught up to her and she laughed as she pulled her wavy, completely wet hair out of her eyes.

As Kensi continued running, she eventually began to enjoy herself, finding the entire thing a bit funny and just feeling free above all else. That's why she was enjoying this so much, that was exactly it. She felt free. She didn't have on make up, she hadn't touched her hair since she'd gone to bed the night before, she was soaking wet yet she didn't care, and she had no limitations. She could just run in the rain, and not care, because the only one with her was Deeks. Just Deeks. She was herself around him more than she was around anybody else. He made the real her shine through the person she usually was at work before he became her partner. He made her find herself, because she never worried about being judged by him. He would make fun of her for every little thing, sure, but none of it was serious. He would never judge her, or think any less of her for being herself or doing what she _really_ wanted to do. She didn't have to worry, or feel like she had limitations to what she could and couldn't do or say. She felt like she could do whatever she wanted, and it wouldn't matter because he'd still be there for her.

Acting on instinct because she felt like she could, Kensi turned around and faced Deeks while still running, only doing so backwards now.

"Deeks!" She yelled, getting his attention. When his eyes made contact with hers, she grinned. "Thanks," she shouted.

He looked confused, with a slight smile on his face.

Not bothering to see his full reaction, she turned back around and continued running. She heard a loud boom of thunder and shivered slightly.

Fairly soon, they were back at the large rock they had climbed in order to get into the desert. Kensi approached it and tried to climb onto it, but she slipped off. Deeks grabbed her by the waist, even though she wasn't far from the ground and there was no possible way of getting hurt…It was just instinct. She shivered a little from his touch, but it went away quickly when he pulled back.

"There's no way we'll be able to get back over it. We have to find another way to the site," she said, getting teasingly close to him so he could hear her better.

He nodded, unable to pay much attention as he watched her lips move. They had drops of water on them, and they looked…so appealing…

"Deeks! Are you listening to me?" she shouted.

Ripped from his thoughts, Deeks' eyes darted up from her lips to her eyes. "Yeah," he answered.

She stared at him for a short moment, and then turned around and started jogging around the mountain of a rock, until she got away from it to a part of the forest without any enormous rocks in the way. She darted inside, and Deeks followed her. When they got into the forest of small trees, they finally got relief from the pouring rain. They were still getting rained on even in the forest, but it was a much lighter drizzle type of rain because of the trees' shade. After they got deep into the forest, Deeks heard Kensi yelp and he ran over to her as he watched her fall against a rough tree backwards. She then slid down it a bit.

"Are you okay?" he asked, thinking she was probably fine.

She nodded, pushing herself off the tree and fixing her shirt. She arched her back for a moment, but Deeks thought nothing of it.

"I tripped on that," she said, pointing to a broken tree branch on the ground.

He glanced at it, and then turned around and started walking forward again because she seemed fine.

They wandered around in the forest for about fifteen minutes, until they found a civil, normal street with camp sites on the sides. When they got out into the street, they were immediately re-soaked by the pouring rain. Kensi looked side to side, and then spotted the public bathrooms.

"Look. It's the bathrooms. They're right across the street from our camp site," she said.

Deeks nodded. He thought he noticed her wincing, but he was sure he'd imagined it because she was acting completely fine. They started running together toward the camper. It didn't take them long, and the second they got there, Kensi unlocked the camper quickly and they darted inside, slamming the door shut.

Kensi shivered when she got inside, because the camper air conditioner had been on all day. In a camper, it always got very cold when the air conditioner was on, because it was such a tiny space and the air didn't have to circulate functionally. It just all gathered in the little area, making it very cold sometimes. But cold always beat hot.

Right when she got inside, she threw the lunch box onto the table and rushed into the back room, yanking her shirt off immediately. She knew Deeks would see, but she was pretty sure he would have to see anyway when she told him about her scrape.

He walked into the room, and then stepped back a bit in shock. "What are you _doing?_" he asked in confusion. She was facing him, and from the front she looked fine. She turned around, revealing a huge wound on her back. It wasn't horrible, but it was fairly large and very bloody. Her skin was peeled off on the area, and the scrape was surrounded by fresh purple bruises.

"I think I scraped my back," she said, trying to look over her shoulder and see if anything was there, but not able to see anything.

"You think so? Damn, Kensi, how the hell did that happen? You never even mentioned it. Doesn't it hurt? It looks like it hurts pretty bad," he said, bombarding her as he stepped closer and looked at the wound from a better view.

"Yeah, it hurts a lot," she agreed.

"Why didn't you say anything?" he asked.

"I guess I just didn't think I should until we got back. I scraped it whenever I tripped into that tree and slid against it."

"Okay. Just, uh…lay down on your stomach. We brought first aid and everything, right?" he asked.

She scoffed. "Deeks. I just want you to get the blood off so I don't get my new change of clothes bloody," she said. "I don't need bullshit first aid."

He cocked his head to the side, raising his eyebrows. "You know, the burn will stop if you put medicine and a bandage on that…" he said, staring at her, but not because of her hot body, for once. He could tell that she felt tempted when he talked about the burn…which told him that it was, in fact, burning. From the look on her face, he guessed that it was burning a lot.

She sighed lightly. "Fine," she agreed, laying down on the bottom bunk. "The first aid box is in the drawer under the sink."

Deeks disappeared and Kensi heard him shuffling around in the kitchen, and he reappeared with the first aid kit and a bottle of water. He sat down beside her, took a drink of water, and then handed her the bottle.

"Why are you giving me this?" she questioned.

"Why not?"

"You drank out of it!" she said incredulously.

"So?" he said dismissively, popping open the first aid box. Kensi rolled her eyes and drank from the bottle anyway.

Deeks got off the bed for a minute and disappeared into the bathroom. He sat back on the bed a minute later, with a half-wet half-dry dish towel in his hand. He set one of his hands down gently on her back, and used the other hand to hold the dish towel like a puppet. He carefully wiped away the blood on the edges of the wound.

Kensi turned her head and looked at him, and he made eye contact with her a few times. When he started wiping the towel across the actual scrape, she winced involuntarily.

When he was done cleaning the wound, Deeks pulled out several things from the kit, none of which Kensi could see because she was laying facing the wall and he was sitting on the side of the bed. She felt one of his hands touch her back first, to hold her steady, and then she felt something cold on her wound. It just felt cold at first, and then it started burning like hell. She didn't mean to, but she instinctively arched her back, wincing yet again.

"Burns?" Deeks asked.

"Not really, it's fine," she answered.

He was silent for a minute. "There's no point of lying now, you know…"

She stayed silent. A few seconds later, she felt Deeks' thumb gently applying ointment to her wound. The rest of his hand cupped around her small stomach, hanging down her side.

"How much further does this go?" he asked, referring to the fact that the wound was partially covered by her shorts.

"Not very much," she said.

Deciding that her words meant it was okay, he continued applying the ointment and lifted the hem of her shorts just barely so he could reach the end of the scrape. He quickly and awkwardly put the medicine on the end, and then dropped her shorts elastic back into place. His hand still on part of her back that wasn't scraped, he reached into the box and pulled out some bandages. He couldn't help but notice how warm her skin was.

"You feel like you have fever or something," he said.

"It's because your hand is next to the scrape. The scrape is inflamed. The rest of my body isn't like that," she said. "Feel my arm." She held out her arm and Deeks wrapped his hand around it, and found that it was a normal temperature.

"Oh. Okay," he said, releasing her arm gently, his hand sliding up to her shoulder and then off of her body completely.

Next, Deeks strapped a couple of large bandages onto the wound, covering it all.

"I'm done," he said.

She nodded, and then sat up. It was painful, but it wasn't that bad. She'd been hurt a million times, and most of the time the injuries were a lot worse than a large scrape down her back. She could deal with it easily.

She got off the bed and dug through her clothes, finding a clean outfit. "Thanks, Deeks," she murmured.

He looked a little surprised, but gave a slight nod of his head and grinned. "Feeling any better?"

"Yeah. It's not a big deal, Deeks. Just a scratch."

He chuckled. "Then it's a pretty big scratch," he commented.

She finally pulled the right clothes out of her bag, and then disappeared into the bathroom.

When she emerged a few minutes later, Deeks had changed into new clothes also. She stared at him, grabbing a towel and attempting to dry her hair.

"So what now?" she asked.

He shrugged. "I guess we just hang out."

* * *

**AN: Kind of a tacky ending, I know. But I had to stop it somewhere, lol. It's going on 6100 words in a single chapter hahaha that should really be like three chapters tbh. So sorry about the non-cliffhanger, non-suspenseful ending. Just review please! This is a really long chapter that I worked hard on, even if it was somewhat uneventful. Next chapter will probably be a LOT better. **_**REVIEW!**_


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